LGBT Health and Wellbeing – Well Proud

Category Archives: Glasgow

Our 2017 annual survey is now live
and waiting for your feedback.

Each year, we ask everyone who accessed our services (no matter how long or often) to give us their comments on our programme of services, events and groups. This is your chance to let us know what we did well and what we could improve on, including opportunities to suggest future events or groups you’d like to see happen, how to improve our accessibility and many more.

It is also a time for you to reflect on the impact our services had on you. We love to hear about personal journeys and how far you have come. This helps us tailor our services to your needs the best we can. It also helps us collect evidence of needs and gaps to feedback to our funders so we can demonstrate that our services are vital to our local community.

The survey is a vital tool to the organisation and we would really appreciate if you could spare some of your time to complete it. And as a thank you, we want to give you the chance to enter our prize draw and maybe win a £40 voucher of your choice.

Here at LGBT Health and Wellbeing, we are just coming off of Pride Edinburgh festivities. As our community gather together each year to remember those whose sacrifices contributed to the fight for equality, we are always in awe at the resilience and pride demonstrated. Rainbows, chants and marches can fill people with so much hope and witnessing it at Pride always gives our team more motivation to carry our work. We were very glad to be a part of Pride Edinburgh once again. We loved spending time with the community, all in joyfulness and fabulousness. We want to thank everyone who engaged with us and took part in some of our activities. We are grateful for all the support you show to our organisation, and most importantly, the support you show to each other.

It is easy to get swept up in the festivities, rainbow flags and glitter but we also want to remember that we marched in solidarity of those who couldn’t and still can’t march. Because Pride also helps us remind ourselves that we are not alone and that we are all striving for something good. This is why we want to take the energy and spirit from Pride and carry it forward, because we should take every opportunity to uplift those who face difficulties in their lives.

The current political and social climate makes it easy to feel lost and discouraged and so we want to dedicate July to celebrate all the good things and people who work hard every day to make the world a more tolerant and understanding place. Sometimes, it might seem that things are not getting any better, especially with news like the discovery of Anti-LGBT violence in Chechnya – the outlook might seem bleak. But there are organisations dedicated to working towards saving those persecuted: the Human Rights Watch has a dedicated website to the issue and the Amnesty International UKpage where you can sign a petition urging the authorities to take action and ensure peoples’ safety. Remember that your voice matters, even at times when you feel that’s not the case. It is people who inspire people, and that’s how progress is still happening. Last Friday morning, after 15 years since legalising civil unions for same-sex partnerships, Germany finally voted to allow same-sex couples to marry.
Change takes a while but when it happens, all the hard work is worth it.

This is why we want July at LGBT Health and Wellbeing to be about celebration – a reminder to be proud and celebrate our differences continuously whilst striving for change. As much as Pride celebrates all the milestones and victories of our community, it’s also a time to celebrate yourself. As an organisation, we work hard to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals and we believe that celebrating diversity can help us in doing so. Our programme of social events aims to encourage intersectionality through various events, bringing together and introducing people from a mix of backgrounds and experiences. This month, we will celebrate body positivity with an LGBTQ Yoga session and a spoken word evening with Katherine McMahon at our Women’s Wellbeing Events. We will also be looking at historical trans figures at our monthly T time meetup and looking at the experiences of LGBT asylum seekers and refugees during a community discussion. And finally, our last festivity of the month, our annual family-friendlyLGBT Summer Celebration where we’ll be celebrating all things queer.

Every month, we deliver a series of events for the entire diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), non-binary, queer, intersex and asexual communities. Through the delivery of these events, we aim to increase social capital providing social opportunities, alternatives to the traditional LGBT scene, peer support, information and advocacy.

Our programme of social events support the range of services that we provide:

Community Groups: weekly and monthly community groups self-managed and facilitated by community members

All our events are delivered under a Safe Space Commitment actively upheld by our staff, volunteers and community groups leaders. A Safe Space is somewhere everyone feels welcome, respected and comfortable with being who they are. This includes people who access our services, volunteers, community groups leaders and staff.

To keep updated with events coming up each month, you can subscribe to our range of e-bulletins which you will then received monthly or quarterly. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Many thanks to all of you who responded. Your feedback really is invaluable to us!

A booklet to support people with learning disabilities who are exploring their gender is now available. LGBT Health and Wellbeing, as part of the LGBT Learning Disability project, brought together a team of practitioners to create this unique resource. Contributors included staff from NHS Lothian, City of Edinburgh Council, NHS Forth Valley, and the Equality Network.

Annette Rae, Edinburgh Service Manager with LGBT Health and Wellbeing,
explained that:Research findings and direct experiences shared by people with learning disabilities who access our Transgender Support Programme, strongly indicate that people with learning disabilities can often be held back from understanding and expressing their transgender status. Additional barriers include prejudice and discrimination in the wider society, as well as from staff, family and friends that can often result in greater instances of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and even self-harm and attempted suicide. Key messages from ‘What is Transgender’ is that it’s perfectly acceptable to be transgender and positive to explore your gender. The booklet provides some options about how people might want to express their gender, some suggested next steps, and encourages people to seek support from and talk with others who they trust.

Tracy Lazenby-Paterson, Speech & Language Therapist with NHS Lothian,
commented that:People with learning disabilities commonly have cognitive, language and memory problems that make it difficult for them to understand and express information effectively, particularly abstract and complex issues. They can often better understand and retain information when it is simple, straightforward, concrete, and supported with visual cues. The literature supports that transgender people with learning disabilities generally identify with concrete aspects associated with gender, such as specific behaviours and appearance, rather than with the more complex, multi-dimensional gender identity model.

When we translate complex and abstract concepts into a small amount of simplified and concrete information, inevitably a great deal of fine detail will be omitted. However, too much language and fine detail can easily overload the individual with learning disabilities, such that they may fail to understand or retain any of the information provided. ‘What is Transgender’ presents information in a format that people with learning disabilities can best understand and retain, and serves as a starting point from which they can further explore the many issues pertaining to transgender identity

Key Funders

LGBT helpline 0300 123 2523

LGBT Health and Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street, Edinburgh, EH3 6TE
The LGBT Healthy Living Centre (known as LGBT Health and Wellbeing) is recognised as a charity by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, no. SC034216.